We're Born, We Live, We Die
by radredknuxfan
Summary: A fateful crash leads to tragic journey of survival. With their chances against them and being hounded at every turn, Skipper has to be willing to sacrifice everything. Who will survive and who will be devoured by the storm around them? This story was adopted from GearSolidSnake, so the premise and first chapter is all credited to him.
1. Chapter 1

Based off the movie _The Grey_. However, it is only connected in premise and setting alone. The characters, events, and themes are altered.

Now, let me explain before you guys start asking questions. I've adopted this story from GearSolidSnake, so everything that you see in this first chapter was written by him. Everything after that will be my writing. Hopefully, the difference isn't too jarring, considering I've never actually seen The Grey. I do know roughly what happened, though.

**I do not own **_**Penguins of Madagascar**_** or **_**The Grey**_**, the characters and premise belong to their respected owners as such.**

* * *

A blinding flash of white. They say it's the first thing you see coming into this world as well as when you leave it; that deadly color, a symbol of holiness and purity.

We're born into this light; we die in this light. The same kindness and mercy in life is the same desperation and withering decay.

We're born. We Live. We die. It's inevitable.

Our main character realized this at an unforgivablely young age. A penguin at the Central Park Zoo would be thought as the least likely to understand this so deeply. Yet, this discrimination of species did not spare him of life's cruel nature.

Despite everything, this young operative tried his best to mask the pains of life. Amongst his squad of fellow penguin agents, he found the strength to shield himself from the cruel knowledge of our own eventual demise. Life was worth every cent to him. Every day was spent to its fullest extent. Even in the heat of their most dangerous missions, he felt as alive as could be. He had the trust and strength of his friends to guide him. He wasn't a frightened child anymore.

Not only through his comrades, but also this penguin found hope through a female otter at the zoo; Marlene. Her gleaming outlook and every positive aspect surrounded in her aura helped to him recover.

He learned to forget...

How did this individual become like this? How could a penguin become so detached in his knowledge of the universe?

It started with his unfortunate childhood. The memories of his parents were vague. He hardly remembered anything about them. He was orphaned when he was very, very young. When he was hardly able to handle himself, his parents departed into that blinding envelope of light and darkness, never to return. It was after these events he was accepted into his current squad.

All he could remember was a single, meditative conversation with his father.

The older penguin had tried explaining to his young son what this life had in store.

"Son..." the father said, a flipper resting on his son, "You're mother and I will be gone for a bit. We've got to go on a trip, okay? We may not be back for sometime."

"Why?" the young penguin asked sincerely.

Dad thought carefully before saying, "It's about our work. You're the man of the house now, but we'll be back for your birthday, and we'll throw a big party. Does that sound good?"

The fledgling nodded gleefully.

"But in case something happens, I want you to know that nothing bad will happen to you. We have someone to help you in case your mother and I run into... trouble..."

He giggled, "Nothing could happen to us. We're gonna be family forever!"

A painful look of remorse lay hidden in the father's expression of playfulness and innocence. "Well..." He tried explaining, "That may not be. Your mother and I love you with all of our hearts, but sometimes we won't be there at your side. Sometimes we won't be there at all. I don't think there's any way to stop this."

"Why?" The young penguin asked sincerely. His eyes showed a conflict of innocence and reality. He didn't want to hear this kind of talk.

"Son, this world can be mean. Everything dies. One day, your mom will die, I will die, and even you will die. But you've got to ask yourself what your life is worth until that day."

This new information sat with the small child. "Dad..." He finally continued.

His father was gone. Everything around the small boy was engulfed in the snow and ice... A blinding light all around...

"Dad...?!"

Life has come to reap the rest of its bounty...

* * *

_"Agh!"_

Our hero awoke on the freezing snow. His tight feathers blocked the wind chill, thankfully. His head was in the deepest daze, as if he had slept for centuries.

White... All around was a deep, bone-chilling white. The wind blew fiercely as visibility was reduced to only a few feet, with the snow piling around all sides.

The penguin stood up. "Hello?!" He called out. "Hel- agh!"

He reached his flipper reached down to his stomach, only to reveal a ghastly red liquid. Blood. He struggled to keep hold of himself lest he fall victim to shock, then to the vicious frost around him.

A small shard of metal had inserted itself into his soft flesh. What to do... What to do...? If he pulled it out, he would open the wound further and bleed to death. But, its current state left it a hazard.

His left flipper was gashed. The snow upon the wound numbed it at least, yet the penguin could hardly walk.

Large metal plates lay strewn across the snowy field. Further ahead, he could dimly see the fire of a ruined engine tank.

Plane crash... That's all he knew... Just a plane crash...

There was blood staining the fluffy snow all around. Not his blood either. He looked to see the mangled carcass of another animal. Our hero didn't get a chance to see who is was, only the bloody heaped now packed on by the snow and ice.

"Help! Can someone help me?!" He called out desperately.

What... What just happened...?

Everything up to this point lay as a haze. How did he come into this precarious state? Where was he? Who else was alright?

Even more pressing was the most important question of them all: How the hell would he get out...?

"Hey...!" A voice called further ahead. A figure shuffled its way over to our protagonist at a limping pace.

Soon, the wind died down enough for the two to see each other clearly. Something was wrong.

"Hey! What happened?! Hey- Oh my God...!"

* * *

Leave a review of what you think so far.


	2. Chapter 2

Just as a reminder, everything from this chapter on is my writing.

EDIT: After discussing things with GearSolidSnake, I realized that the way I wrote this chapter wasn't the best way to do so, considering it would lead to a lot of confusion, so all mentions of short penguin and round penguin are going to replaced by Skipper and Private, respectively.

* * *

The two penguins stared at each other, unsure of what to do next.

"Here, let me help you with that."

The figure slowly limped his way over to our protagonist, intending to help remove the shard from his stomach, but he immediately began crawling away, wincing in pain as his bleeding flipper made contact with the freezing snow.

"N-no! Please don't!"

"I can't just leave you here like this!"

The protagonist looked around, trying to find if there was anything that could help with their predicament. Unfortunately, all he could see was snow, so he turned back to the other penguin, grunting in pain as the twisting aggravated the stomach wound. His vision swam as the loss of blood started to cause problems.

"Take a look around and see if there are any medical supplies."

The figure nodded and began searching around the area. Eventually, he managed to find a medical kit inside one of the parts of the flaming wreckage of the plane.

Silently praying for it not to be already picked clean, he opened the box and found it full of supplies. Elated, he kissed the box and picked it up, returning to the other penguin.

"Here it is, sir!"

"Please…call me by my real name."

"Alright, fine. Here it is, Skipper."

The other penguin began to pull out the supplies that he would need to perform First Aid. When he got all that he needed, he reached over and grabbed the shard that was embedded in Skipper's stomach.

"W-wait, what are you doing?"

"I'm taking this thing out. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with a metal shard in your stomach?"

Skipper opened his beak to protest, but he realized that the other penguin, which he finally could see was about his size but much rounder, was in fact right. He tried to remember who the other penguin was, but his mind was in a haze from the loss of blood, so he tried not to overexert himself.

The rounder penguin grabbed the shard once again, and without waiting for approval, he started pulling at the shard, the only thing he could hear being screams of pain.

Finally, the round penguin successfully removed the shard, and he grabbed the medical tape, bandaging his comrade up. Once he finally finished, the round penguin's name finally came to Skipper.

"Thanks, Private."

Skipper attempted to get up, but Private stopped him.

"Get up slowly. It's probably still going to hurt for you to move."

He reluctantly did as he was told; expecting his comrade to be proved incorrect, but it wasn't the case as a wave of pain racked through his body. But he gritted his beak, slowly making his way forward before being having to use Private as a crutch.

As they slowly made their way away from the wreckage of the plane, Private began to talk.

"I've located some of the other survivors over the past few days. There's a campsite we made not too far from here. They should all still be there."

"How long have I been out?"

"No idea exactly. I would probably say at least a few hours."

Skipper was hit with a pang of guilt, thinking about how their friends and family back at home must be worried by now.

* * *

A little while later, the two penguins arrived at the campsite to find a small group of people already there in various states of health. Most of them looked okay to Skipper, but there were a few who were lying on the ground sick.

Skipper looked around, suddenly realizing that there was no fire. Without even thinking about it, he walked in the middle of the group of people and began speaking.

"Hey, why haven't you guys built a fire yet?"

"We've tried! The wind keeps blowing it out when we try to light one."

Skipper looked at who replied to his question, and he saw that it was a female otter. Unfortunately, the team didn't exactly have enough time to get to know each other before they had to get on the plane, so he had to quickly run through a list of names in his head before speaking to her again.

"You're…Marlene, right?"

Marlene nodded.

"Did you try moving the fire into the woods? It might help cut down on the wind."

"Kowalski brought it up way before you guys even got here. I've heard wolves, though, so I told him that we probably shouldn't."

"Wolves?" asked Skipper.

Marlene nodded once again, and Skipper sighed.

"I had a feeling things wouldn't be that easy. Look, can you show me where this 'Kowalski' is?"

Marlene pointed towards another penguin that looked much taller than he was. Skipper limped over and tried to catch the tall penguin's attention.

"Excuse me, are you Kowalski by any chance?"

Unfortunately, Kowalski was too busy freaking out due to the situation they were all in to notice. This forced Skipper to slap him to bring him back to his senses.

"Pull yourself together! If we're going to survive, we're going to need to work as a team."

"Oh…sorry about that. I've never really found myself in this kind of situation before, to be honest."

Skipper sighed.

"Look, just start working on building a fire. It looks like it's starting to get dark, and we're not going to have a chance against the wolves if we don't have light."

"But what about the wind? I'm pretty sure someone mentioned to you that the wind keeps blowing the fire out."

"Then just block it with your bodies! We have to make sacrifices if we want to make it through, and complete warmth is going to be pretty much impossible in a place like this."

Kowalski reluctantly nodded, still not convinced they were going to be able to pull something like that off, but when the survivors finally got a fire together and placed themselves between the fire and the direction the wind was blowing in from, they found that it worked perfectly.

* * *

Hunger began to set in as night fell at the campsite. The air was tense as everyone was busy trying to keep their minds off the fact that they were hungry by concentrating on staying warm.

Unfortunately, Kowalski was unable to do that, as he got up from his seat and began making his way away from the campsite, only to be stopped by Skipper.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To find some food. I'm starving!"

"No you're not. You do realize that there are wolves around, correct?"

"Oh come on!"

"I'm in charge here, Kowalski, and I'm only looking out for everyone's safety. Now, I want everyone to get some sleep. When morning comes, we'll head out and hunt for food. You got that?"

Kowalski didn't answer, as he was staring over Skipper's shoulder at a spot in the woods a few feet away. Skipper turned around, wondering what he was looking at, when he saw a figure in the woods.

"Stay here."

He grabbed the nearest weapon he could find, which was a small log, before slowly making his way over to the figure, which turned out to be a corpse.

Skipper reeled back temporarily, taken aback as he realized that he recognized the body as one of his teammates for the expedition, but the name escaped him at the moment. He slowly crept back up and poked it with the log to make sure that it was actually dead before he was suddenly ambushed by a wolf.

Thankfully, he had his log in both flippers as he fell to the ground, which he used by pressing into the wolf's neck, preventing its teeth from reaching his own neck.

The yelp that Skipper gave off as he was thrown to the ground, combined with the snarling from the wolf alerted people back at the camp, and Private came rushing towards them carrying a large rock, which he threw at the wolf, catching it in the face and scaring it off.

Skipper took a few moments to catch his breath before Private helped him up to his feet.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I think we might be in trouble, though."

"How so? That was only one wolf."

"I think we might be in their territory. We're going to need to have someone keep watch for them."

Private nodded, trusting his judgment. When they finally returned to the camp, Skipper relayed his plan to the rest of the survivors.

"Are there any volunteers?"

A monkey raised his hand.

"Alright, and your name is?"

The monkey didn't reply, which annoyed Skipper. He turned towards Kowalski, who was closest to him.

"Do you know his name?"

"I think somebody said it was Phil."

"Alright, Phil. You're on watch duty for tonight. If there are any signs of wolves, wake one of us up immediately. Do you understand?"

Phil nodded.

"Everyone else to bed! We're going to be hunting early tomorrow!"

The survivors all did their best to huddle in front of the fire before going to bed, including Skipper. However, before he could sleep, he silently said a prayer, hoping that they would all still be alive the next morning.

* * *

Most of these chapters are probably going to be a little bit shorter than my average word count, but that really depends on how well the story flows in my head.

Anyway, please let me know what you think. Tell me how it compares to GearSolidSnake's chapter. I'm really interested in knowing how I compare with what he wrote for Chapter 1.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a quiet morning on the highways of Alaska. Most people would probably be asleep at this time of day, but there was one small car driving along the road containing Skipper. He was on his way to an airfield a few miles down the road, as he was contracted to assist an oil drilling team.

As he drove down the road, in his mind he was second-guessing himself, wondering why he agreed to help keep wolves away from the team after what happened the last time.

Eliminating wolves actually used to be a job of his. It was a thankless job, but his clients paid well, so he dealt with it. However, on his last day, his aim was off, and he only succeeded in wounding the animal.

As he walked up and saw the wolf breathing heavily, he knew it was unlikely that it was going to live, and he realized just how worthless of a penguin he was, depleting the population of a species so that ten people could live.

At that moment, he resolved never to harm another animal without reason.

Unfortunately, once his job was completed, the calls kept coming in asking him for help with other teams. He kept refusing to help, but no one listened. It got to the point where depression kicked in, as he believed that his hunting prowess was all he was good for.

So, still feeling incredibly worthless, Skipper went into his house one day while his wife was gone, wrote a vague letter to her avoiding any of the details as to why he felt this way, and put the barrel of his rifle into his beak.

Unfortunately, before he could pull the trigger, the phone rang. Sighing in disgust, he put the gun down and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Is this Skipper I'm calling?" said the voice on the other end.

"Yeah. What do you want?"

"Well, I've heard about you helped protect some oil drillers from wolves. My team and I were hoping we could hire you to help us out on an expedition to the northern part of the state."

Skipper once again sighed, pinching the bridge of his beak.

"As I've told the last twenty people who've called me, I don't do that kind of thing anymore. Find someone else."

Before Skipper could hang up, the voice spoke again, with a tinge of desperation in his tone.

"Please, Skipper! We barely have any money, and the north is practically the only part of the state that hasn't already been drilled. And that's the most dangerous part of the state!"

Skipper paused as he considered what the voice said.

"What's your name?"

"Um, well…some people I know call me Private."

"So, what's your real name, then?"

Private didn't answer immediately.

"I'd rather not say. I never liked what my parents named me."

Skipper was curious what kind of name would lead to that kind of reaction, but he decided to let Private off.

"Alright, I'll help you guys out. After that, I'm done. I'm leaving Alaska and heading south."

"Oh, thank you, Skipper! My team and I really appreciate your assistance."

Private relayed the information to Skipper on where he would meet the team, and Skipper hung up. As he sat down and crumpled up the suicide note to throw into the fire, he couldn't help but wonder what exactly convinced him to agree to this.

* * *

Skipper awoke with a jump as a blast of freezing air hit him. As he sat up and looked around the area, he suddenly realized that the fire was out, and he was up in a second, frantically checking up on everyone as he hoped that the fire at least survived the night.

Thankfully, everyone was still okay as they all awoke from being roughly shaken by Skipper.

"Is everyone doing alright? I saw that the fire went out, so make sure you can all still feel everything. We don't want anyone getting frostbite."

The penguins were okay, mostly because they were built for this kind of weather. As for the other survivors, they all quickly checked themselves, not finding any evidence of frostbite. Skipper sighed in relief, thankful that the fire managed to survive the night.

Suddenly, he noticed the fact that one of the survivors was missing. He quickly racked his brain trying to figure out who was missing, when he remembered what happened last night.

"Hey, where's that monkey Phil? He was supposed to stay near the camp site!"

Everyone else looked around, but there was no sign of the silent monkey, until Private suddenly saw something a few feet away from the group.

"Hey Skipper, I think I see something over there!"

Skipper looked over to where Private was pointing and saw something that looked vaguely like that corpse he saw last night.

"Oh no."

He quickly rushed over to the body and saw that it was indeed Phil, who was most likely killed by the wolves. His entire midsection was completely gone, with only his ribs still showing.

Skipper turned towards the rest of the group.

"How did wolves get into our campsite without anyone noticing? You'd figure that we would at least hear some kind of scream."

"Well, if you remember from last night, Skipper, Phil doesn't talk. I'm not sure if he's mute or he prefers speaking through sign language, but he would most likely not be able to scream when he's…being eaten by wolves." said Kowalski, suppressing a shiver at the thought.

Skipper slowly shook his head in dismay before speaking again.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now. If there's anyone who wants to join me for hunting, do it now. I'm not waiting around for long."

Skipper waited for a few seconds, eventually being joined by Private, Kowalski, and another penguin he hasn't personally met before.

"And you are?"

The other penguin replied with a string of gibberish.

"Come again? I didn't catch that."

The other penguin only looked at Skipper blankly, his tongue lolling out of his beak.

"I believe he said that his name was Rico, Skipper." said Kowalski.

"Oh, alright then. Wait…you can understand that gobbledygook?"

"Not entirely. I did manage to catch his name in there, though."

Skipper shrugged, deciding not to worry about it.

"Come on, let's go."

The four penguins walked off, each carrying a rifle that the other survivors had managed to pull out of the rubble of the plane.

* * *

As the hunting team walked through the forest desperately trying to stave off the biting cold, Skipper decided he needed to do something to keep his mind off of the cold, so he decided to strike up a conversation.

"So Kowalski, what made you decide to join his team?" he asked, pointing towards Private.

"Um…to be honest, I'm not exactly sure why. There was an ad in the paper looking for a scientific mind to join his expedition, and I needed some money, so I decided to join up."

Kowalski then looked over at Private.

"Come to think of it, you never did mention what I was actually needed for."

"Oh, sorry Kowalski. It kind of slipped my mind after the crash. I actually needed someone who could help us work the machines that can help us find the oil underground. I guess things didn't work out quite that way, huh?"

"Mm-hm." said Kowalski before looking forward once again.

Skipper turned towards Rico once he was certain Kowalski and Private were done talking.

"What about you, Rico?"

Rather than answer, Rico threw up a stick of dynamite and caught it in his flipper, showing it to Skipper.

"Kaboom kaboom!"

Skipper was slightly disturbed. He wondered for a second what other dangerous objects he had in there before he suddenly realized the benefits of having someone like him.

"That could be a nice defense against predators."

Rico smiled dumbly, making Skipper wonder what exactly was wrong with him.

"Hey Kowalski, what's the deal with him?" he whispered to the taller penguin as he pointed at Rico.

Kowalski shrugged.

"I'm about as clueless as you are, Skipper. Let's not worry about him, though. He doesn't look like a danger to the group. At least, not yet."

Skipper looked back at Rico, not sure whether he should trust Kowalski's judgment or not.

"Alright, Kowalski. We'll play it your way."

Suddenly, Skipper spotted a deer not too far from where they were standing. He quickly quieted down the other guys and slowly made his way over to a bush, where he could spy on the deer without being noticed.

The other penguins joined him a few seconds later, all of them giving Skipper questioning looks. Rather than explain himself by speaking, he pointed towards the deer and told them all to stay quiet.

Skipper slowly crept out of the bush, trying to get closer to the still unaware deer. However, before he could even think about taking the shot, a wolf jumped in from the brush and took the deer down like it was nothing.

Skipper quietly swore to himself before he suddenly heard footsteps coming from behind him. Quickly reacting, he reached out to his side and grabbed the cause of said footsteps, throwing him down to the ground and pinning him using his other flipper.

As the figure struggled, Skipper looked down and saw that it was Private who was under him.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed, Private?"

"That wolf just stole our only food, Skipper!"

"And he's going to have you for dessert if you reveal yourself like that. Don't be stupid, Private!"

Private sighed, slumping in defeat.

"I'm sorry, Skipper. I'm just really hungry right now."

"I know. We all are, too."

Skipper released his grip on Private, and the round penguin brushed all of the snow off of his body.

* * *

Unfortunately, even after another hour or so of searching, the hunting party could only manage to get a few rabbits, which probably wouldn't last them very long.

"Sorry about missing that shot, Skipper. We might have actually had a deer if I wasn't way off with my aim."

"Don't worry about it, Private. These rabbits should at least get us through the night. Then we'll worry about getting more food later."

However, their light hearted mood was short-lived, as they returned to the camp to find two of the other survivors in a heated argument, supplies strewn around the area they were standing in.

"What the hell is going on here?!"

* * *

Sorry about the awkward cliffhanger. I didn't want to make this chapter too long, and it would've probably ended up that way if I continued on.


	4. Chapter 4

The arguing survivors froze as they heard Skipper's outburst. One of them, a puffin, turned to face him as he tried to explain himself.

"It's just a simple misunderstanding, sir."

Skipper could hear the Danish accent coming from the puffin, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"What's your name?"

"Hans, sir. I came to the US from Denmark a few months ago."

"I can tell." said Skipper, giving Hans an unimpressed look before continuing on.

"Judging from all of our stuff being scattered around the area, I would imagine that this is more than just 'a simple misunderstanding'. Mind explaining what you two are going on about?"

The other survivor stepped forward to offer his side of the story, but Skipper held up a flipper to silence him.

"Name first. Then you can explain yourself."

"My name's Maurice. And the reason we were arguing is because Hans over there thinks that he should be leading the group."

Skipper was noticeably surprised to hear someone wanting to take over his job, but he kept his cool, keeping his focus on Maurice at the moment.

"And what about you? What's your side of this?"

Maurice glanced away for a second, catching Skipper's attention.

"Well, um…I figured that you would be the best."

Skipper easily saw through Maurice's lie, and he showed him so by giving the aye-aye an unconvinced look. Maurice finally relented not too long after, and he told the real story.

"Alright, I'll admit that you're not my first choice, but now that I've gotten to know some of the others, I think that you're the best we got."

Skipper nodded before walking over and placing himself in between the two of them.

"Now, I want the both of you to quit it with your petty squabbles right now. We can't afford to be fighting among ourselves if we want to survive long enough to get out of here."

Both Maurice and Hans reluctantly went their separate ways, although Hans did give Skipper a look of distrust. Unfortunately, Skipper didn't see it, since he was looking at Maurice to make sure he wouldn't do anything.

* * *

An hour or so passed as the survivors tried to remain warm next to the fire that they rebuilt soon after the argument happened. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to stay healthy, as a baboon named Darla came down with pneumonia.

With Kowalski being the scientific brain that he was, it ended up becoming his job to take care of her despite not knowing a whole lot about medicine. This ended up angering Private when he found out, and he confronted Kowalski not too long after.

"You told me on the phone that you knew a bunch about medicine! I needed someone to be our medic as well as work the equipment!"

Kowalski backed away slightly, trying to put some space between them as he explained himself.

"I'm sorry to put the blame on you Private, but you never asked how well I knew medicine. I only have a basic understanding of medical procedures."

Attempting to process this new revelation, Private turned around and clutched at his head, stumbling around.

"Oh, we're so screwed! Why didn't I ask that before?"

Skipper walked over to where Private was, grabbing him by the chest and slapping him in the face.

"Get a hold of yourself, Private! You put this team together, and you're going to have to learn from your mistakes."

Private finally calmed down, and he turned towards Kowalski, sighing.

"Just try and see what you can do. I don't know if we're gonna be able to save her."

Everyone looked over worriedly at Darla, who was shivering under a spare blanket that someone managed to scrounge from the plane wreckage.

Suddenly, before business could resume as usual, a hand came up from within the crowd of survivors.

"I can help take care of her."

The owner of said hand stepped forward, and it turned out to be Marlene, who had a look of determination on her face.

Private paused as he considered whether to let her do it. However, before he could make that decision, Skipper stepped forward to make it for him.

"That's fine, Marlene. We could use all the help we can get for her."

Both Kowalski and Marlene walked over to where Darla was and began taking care of her as best as they could. As for the rest of the group, they returned to business as usual.

* * *

Another hour passed, and there was still no change in their situation. It was beginning to get dark, and while the fire was still burning as bright as ever, everyone could hear the howls of wolves from off in the distance. This made Skipper slightly nervous, as there was no telling when the wolves would come into their campsite.

He quickly tried to come up with a solution to their predicament, and only one idea popped into his head. He stood up and walked over to Private, who was trying to keep up a conversation with Rico and Maurice, which was difficult considering Rico.

"Hey Private, can I talk to you for a second?"

Private stared at Skipper quizzically for a second before standing up and following Skipper back to where he was originally sitting.

"What's up?"

Skipper sighed before answering.

"I think we should probably be moving to another campsite. I don't like our chances if we stay here where all the wolves are."

Private paused.

"I think you're right. Our luck is probably bound to run out sometime. But what about Darla? I'm not sure if she's gonna be able to keep up with us."

Skipper could see Private's point, but he figured it probably wouldn't be as big of a deal as Private says.

"I doubt pneumonia is going to prevent you from being able to walk. Besides, we can always just have someone help her along."

Private didn't really like the flippant tone that Skipper had when he said that, but he did agree that she could travel with them with some help.

"Alright, we'll let the group know in the morning. How does that sound?"

Skipper only responded with a nod before turning to the rest of the group.

"Time to go to sleep, everybody. It's getting late."

A majority of the group was already way ahead of Skipper, as they were already sound asleep. As for the rest of the survivors who were still awake, they all went to sleep soon after Skipper's call.

* * *

As Skipper continued traveling down Alaska's highways, his mind continued to wander as he wondered whether he could kill another wolf after watching that last one slowly die.

"God, I wish that I didn't agree to this job." he said to himself.

It was a few days after he was initially contracted to the job, and he was questioning his decision making skills the entire time.

Why did he cave for this job, of all the jobs that he could have taken in the state?

That question continued to run through his mind repeatedly, to the point where it was starting to bother him that he didn't know.

Deciding to figure it out later, he returned to focusing on the road, only to suddenly realize that he made it to the airfield. Caught off guard, he nearly passed by the turn, which forced him to slam on the brakes to slow down enough.

Thankfully, no one was on the road, so his car suddenly stopping didn't lead to any problems.

As he entered the airfield, he took a look around, hoping that he wouldn't have to look very long to find the one he was looking for, but unfortunately, there were a large number of planes there considering this was the only airfield in the area.

Skipper swore to himself. Sighing, he continued to drive, hoping that no one was around to force him to walk on foot.

Finally, after about ten minutes of searching, Skipper spotted a group of people loading cargo into a plane that had its own little spot on the airfield. Slightly annoyed at being forced to look around for no reason, Skipper drove towards said plane, parking his car a good distance away to prevent it from getting hit by anything.

Eventually, after a few minutes of walking, Skipper arrived in the vicinity of the plane and he took a look around, trying to see if he could figure out who Private was.

He didn't have to figure it out himself, though, as one of the penguins in the group turned around and spotted him standing there. Smiling, he walked over to where Skipper was standing.

"I see you've finally made it. You must be Skipper, I assume."

As the two penguins shook flippers, Skipper studied the penguin's face. Young…inexperienced…Skipper had a feeling that this was at least his second or third expedition, if not the first.

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed the look of confusion on the other penguin's face.

"Are you alright, Skipper? It looks like you've kind of zoned out there for a second."

"Oh no, I'm fine. I was just getting an idea of who I'm working with. Anyway, I'm guessing that you must be Private?"

"Yes sir."

Skipper remembered the conversation he had with Private over the phone, and he admittedly thought that the young penguin would look different, judging from his voice.

"So anyway, is there anything you want me to do before we take off?"

"Oh yeah, actually there is. We're kind of running low on time before the airfield wants us to take off, so we'd all appreciate it if you could help us load the supplies on to the plane. Would that be a problem?"

Skipper paused for a second.

"No, I can help you guys out."

Private nodded, but as he was about to return to the group, Skipper placed a flipper on his shoulder.

"Do we have enough time for me to introduce myself? These kinds of expeditions tend to go well when people know each other."

Private nervously glanced off to the side, catching Skipper's attention. He looked at the young penguin, slightly curious as to what was on his mind. However, before he could ask, Private suddenly spoke up again.

"I'm afraid we don't have that much time. We're already behind schedule. If you want to do that on the plane, though, feel free."

Skipper shrugged.

"Alright, suit yourself."

The two penguins joined the rest of the team, unaware of just how bad their expedition was going to get.


	5. Chapter 5

Skipper woke up the next morning to a large amount of commotion coming from the other end of the campsite.

Wondering what was going on, he stood up and made his way over to where the crowd was, trying to get a look at what they were all clustered around. Unfortunately, he couldn't get a good look, so he decided to ask someone.

He looked around the group and found Private. Walking over, he tapped him on the shoulder and the two of them walked off to the side of the campsite to at least get some quiet.

"What's going on, Private? What's with all of the commotion?"

"It's Darla."

Skipper paused for a second before he suddenly remembered that she went down with pneumonia.

"How is she?"

Private simply shook his head, staring at the ground forlornly.

"Dammit. We really need to get out of here as soon as possible. We've already lost three people!"

Although Private was slightly caught off guard by the fact that Skipper mentioned three people, he didn't feel that it was the right time to do a head count, so he chose to let it go and figure out who it was later.

"While I do agree with you that this place isn't safe anymore, where are we going to go? It's nothing but white out there! And even then, there's no guarantee that the wolves will leave us alone, even if we do manage to find a new place to stay!"

"Well, we can't stay here and let them pick us off one by one!"

Private sighed, looking away for a few seconds before meeting Skipper's eyes.

"If you think that's best for us to survive, Skipper, then I'll come along. What are you gonna do about the others, though? I don't know if they're gonna be willing, especially right after Darla."

"I'll figure something out."

The two penguins turned around and returned to the rest of the group, who had all disbanded from keeping vigil over Darla and were trying to keep themselves busy, with an air of sadness hanging over them.

The only one still keeping watch over her was Kowalski, and he seemed to be the most distraught about it. When Skipper reached where he was sitting, he placed a flipper on his shoulder, attempting to comfort the tall penguin.

"I did the best I could."

Kowalski wiped his eyes as he stared at the unmoving form of Darla.

"No one blames you, Kowalski. You tried, but frankly I'd be surprised if she managed to recover from something as bad as what she had, especially in this weather."

Kowalski paused, wiping his eyes once more as he looked at Skipper.

"Thanks for the words of encouragement. You didn't have to be so blunt about it, though."

"Sorry. Anyway, if you're up for it, we need to find a new campsite. This place is way too dangerous."

"But…but what about Darla? We can't just leave her here! We have to give her a proper burial."

"Where, Kowalski? I'm not sure if you've noticed this, but even if we did have shovels, it's pretty much all snow and ice everywhere. I doubt burying her under snow will work."

Kowalski glared at Skipper, wanting to smack him for suggesting that they leave Darla behind, but he knew there was no way they were going to be able to dig through the snow and the ground.

"Dammit…fine. I hope that you realize that this is going to hang over you for a long time."

Skipper stared at his feet forlornly, well aware of that fact.

"Come on, let's go tell the others." said Kowalski, still unhappy as he headed back towards the rest of the survivors. Skipper followed soon after reflecting for a few moments.

* * *

Skipper had some difficulty convincing the rest of the group to abandon the campsite, but when they heard howls coming from off in the distance, they all agreed to go, not wanting to be around if and when the wolves come around.

"Alright, now that everyone's on board, I have one thing that I want to do before we leave."

The survivors looked around in confusion, wondering what else needed to be done. Skipper paused for a second before continuing on.

"I'd rather not leave anything behind that could be useful, so we need to get as much as we can from the plane wreck. Hopefully there's still some stuff left."

Unfortunately, instead of immediately going along with Skipper's plan, the survivors traded looks as Kowalski spoke up.

"Uh, Skipper, we already had that idea when this whole thing started. I don't know if you've gotten a look since you woke up, but there was almost nothing left."

Skipper didn't immediately believe Kowalski, but he suddenly remembered that Private had searched through the plane while he had that chunk of metal in his gut.

He turned towards the small penguin, intending to ask him about it, but Private was already there with his answer.

"It was nearly empty, Skipper. Frankly, I was lucky to find that med kit to patch you up."

Skipper was very disappointed to hear about this new development. Still, he refused to give up on the chance that there may be at least something there.

"Private, Kowalski, Rico…you're coming with me. The rest of you can stay here for now."

"What? Didn't we just say that the plane was empty a few minutes ago?" asked Kowalski, taken aback.

"I know. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd feel better if we gave the wreckage one last look around before we head off."

The three penguins gave Skipper a disbelieving look.

"Hey, I just want to play it safe. That's all."

Finally, Kowalski reluctantly sighed.

"Alright. I'll come with you, but don't be surprised if we come back empty-handed."

Skipper turned towards Private and Rico.

"You guys coming along too?"

Both penguins nodded, although Private was reserved in his agreement.

Satisfied, Skipper began heading towards where the plane wreckage was, with the other three penguins following along behind him.

* * *

When the group finally reached the still somehow burning wreckage of their plane, they all got to work, combing through whatever they could reach.

However, only Skipper seemed to be putting any effort into it. Kowalski and Private still didn't believe that there would be anything, so they were both half-heartedly searching. As for Rico, he was just aimlessly walking around.

Skipper easily noticed their poor attempts at faking effort, and he turned towards the others, slightly angry.

"What are you two doing? You're not going to find anything dragging your feet like that!"

Kowalski opened his beak to explain, but Skipper held up a flipper.

"I know what you're gonna say, Kowalski. Please, just try to put in some effort. You never know, we might find something good."

Kowalski shrugged, figuring that he might as well give it a shot. So, the penguins returned to their search, this time with everyone giving it their all.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Skipper pushed aside a large piece of shrapnel and noticed a large box hiding under it. Intrigued, he looked inside and found something that made his face light up.

"Come quick, you guys! I think I've found something!"

Thankfully the other penguins were in the same area of the plane that Skipper was, so it didn't take them long to join him.

None of them spoke, so Skipper had to beckon them over to where the box was, and the three of them looked inside, their eyes all widening as they found out what was in it.

"Well I'll be damned." said Kowalski.

There were only a couple of tools in the box, but the penguins were all pretty happy to have something go well for them.

"Come on. Let's grab these things and get back to the camp. These ought to help speed things up once we find a new campsite."

The mood noticeably lightened, the penguins began making their way back to the campsite, things finally looking up for once.

* * *

When they finally returned, the rest of the survivors looked at them expectantly.

"Well, did you find anything?" asked Marlene, although her expression signified that she didn't expect much.

Her expression didn't change when the penguins showed the tools that they recovered from the wreckage.

"A hammer, a nail gun, a hand saw and a screwdriver. No offense, you guys, but we were kind of expecting you all to come back with food or medical supplies. Not stuff you'd build a house with."

Skipper sighed, somehow already having expected the reception they would get.

"Look, I know that these things aren't exactly useful right now, but I'm thinking about the future. What if rescue doesn't come soon? We need to find ways to defend ourselves, and most of these tools can be pretty useful. Heck, we can even use these with the new campsite!"

Marlene still wasn't convinced, but she decided that Skipper did have a point, however flimsy it was. Reluctantly, she sighed.

"If you guys are ready, I'm sure that we all want to leave."

The other survivors all murmured their agreement, which led to Skipper making his way towards the front of the group.

"Before we leave, make sure that everyone has everything that they need. I do not want to have to come back because someone forgot something important? Do you all understand?"

The group all nodded, and they temporarily disbanded, combing through the campsite one last time. When they all returned to where Skipper was standing, he assumed that they must have gotten everything.

"So, if everyone's ready, let's head out!"

Skipper turned around and began to walk; quickly checking behind him to make sure that everyone was behind him. It didn't happen immediately, but the survivors slowly started walking, following right behind him.

As the group began their journey through the frozen tundra of Alaska, a thought crept into Skipper's head. He wondered whether he was making a mistake by making the group have to endure subzero temperatures. However, he realized that this was more like the lesser of two evils. If they didn't leave, they probably would all be dead.

Not wanting to dwell on that fact, Skipper returned his focus to the road ahead, hoping that nothing would go wrong along the way.


End file.
